Why the Russians Got to Compete in the Olympic Games?

The Winter Olympics are over but I got stuck reminiscing over the Games. I watched The Icarus on Netflix finally. This is a documentary everyone should see and ask: why the fuck did the Russian athletes get to compete in Pyeongchang?

The documentary won an Oscar last night and will probably get even more recognition. Even though the Oscars are more known to be pat-on-the-back party for Hollywood elite, here’s hoping that thought-provoking documentaries could actually bring some change into this world.

The Icarus exposes the nation wide doping use, which was backed by the Russian government, throughout the last few decades. At the same time, it reveals how twisted our present day world is.

When the news broke about the case these past two years, I hadn’t quite grasped how big machine behind the whole operation there was. The Russian anti-doping program (as it was of course officially called) had big laboratories where to specifically research how long the bad stuff is visible in athletes’ urine. After the poor performance in Vancouver Putin wanted to raise bets for the home-turf Olympics in Sochi. It was decided that the athletes will continue using hormones all through the Games to secure success. Russia brought along the infamous FSB to help tamper with piss bottles and replace dirty samples with clean ones. It sounds absolutely unbelievable. Russia took home record-breaking 13 gold medals and the nation cheered. Just moments after Putin, whose ratings just grew tremendously, made a move on Ukraine.

All this shit is politics of the devil and part of much bigger picture without any sign of a) humanity b) reason c) justice. Our planet and nature are suffering because of the evil leaders. The whole world starts to feel too absurd — or has it always been one big farce? Putin, Trump, Kim Jong-un… how to escape the children’s playground? I feel unspeakable sense of inadequacy. I guess we can call it our common pain. How many else feel it?

When Russia could manipulate doping samples with such an ease, it’s pretty obvious they had their hand in the 2016 election as well. Sheep are easy to control and Putin has tremendous power over everybody. With Olympics in Rio in 2016, WADA (World Anti-Doping Association) recommended that Russian athletes would be banned but IOC (International Olympic Committee) didn’t listen. Just when news broke on the matter, the leader of Russian anti-doping association Nikita Kamaev died under shady circumstances. He happened to have a heart-attack just after speaking on the matter. The main character in the documentary, doctor Grigory Rodchenkov, is currently in witness protection in US.

The sad fact is that this is the world we live in. Those who play it by the rules are not the winners usually. It feels weird that the neighbor to my honest homeland Finland is lying-in-your-face Russia. Officially Russia was competing under the Olympic flag, but that didn’t really work out: all the reporters and all the people were still talking about Russia. In the end the country didn’t get any punishment. Overall, I don’t understand how someone could celebrate a fake medal / win. How??? I would be deeply shamed for my country, I would protest and would not even have taken part in the games. But not all are as honest. Let’s show some example.